“What happened? You almost did it. Are you okay?” My teammates surrounded me immediately. I could not say a single word. I went right to my place speechless and was staying there staring at one point in the ground thinking “Why?” It was the right time that could turn to be a milestone for me. Everything was like it should be but the only problem was me. All the moments during those years swimming passed through my mind. I have been swimming since I was 10. I always had fun and loved it, until a few years ago. I was getting better and better and one day my coach told me that I was close to making it to nationals and from then I started putting a lot of pressure on myself. That’s when I started being my own worst enemy. Only a month left till …show more content…
I did a lot of mental and physical training. And I figured out that the anxiety that made my palms clammy, my heart flutter, and my mind a tangled web was a well-known opponent in these competitions. But there is a line that separates athletes who use the nervous energy as fuel versus those who allow it to consume them. It’s the crippling self-doubts in our mind that keeps our abilities stuck in the mud. It is a completely normal reaction to have fears to the unknown. And so I started to envision everything before the race. I spend a few quiet minutes every day walking myself through my swim. I replay my race in detail repeatedly and by the time I step to the block I have been there a dozen times already. It is easy to fall victim of overthinking so I should clean my brain of gibberish and start visualizing the race. Meanwhile I am visualizing success I listen to that kind of music that motivate me, pump me up, relax and give me the message I am craving. Even though I have some feelings that plague me, I say to myself that I have signed up voluntarily for this cocktail of unpleasant sensations and I will conquer them. I am not saying that I can get rid of them, because they will continue to do the same consistently and stubbornly, but I can manage to make their voice